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Owen KC Stephens's page

1,084 posts. Alias of OWEN STEPHENS.


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11 people marked this as a favorite.
MVulpius wrote:

Rolling Precog into Witchwarper looks great.

Any particular reason Zemir has a streetlamp now?

What do you mean 'Now'? I was around when Zemir was first conceived and drawn. He's ALWAYS had a streetlamp.

...

At least, in MOST realities he always has...


11 people marked this as a favorite.

Thanks, Starfinder team.
I really do feel like one of my nephews has Grown Up and is Doing Good.
Also, Barista background ftw?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

The publisher and I used to discuss spell balance when this book was being written. I recall our discussion on this spell, and their intent was that no attack roll was needed. A max of 10d6 of damage to one target that the target can't avoid was though by the publisher to be as good as 10d5 in a big radius (fireball), that could be halved with a Reflex save.

Which is why a save negates the additional anchoring effect, and a foe can escape it with a quite low skill DC, though at the cost of a standard action.

I actually think this is a tad strong for a 3rd level spell because when you are 10th level and run into low-dex foes, you an use it to pin 2 foes and they are unlikely to escape.

If it stopped at grappled and anchored in place, it's be a lot closer to what I consider balanced.

But that wasn't your question, and the designer definitely intended it to be an auto-hit like magic missile, though it lacks some of the language that would make that clear.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

The "Still Not Done With PF1!" Bundle
More than 150 1st edition Pathfinder PDFs, for less than $30!
Written and/or developed by veteran game designer and Paizo's previous "Pathfinder Player Companion" line developer Owen K.C. Stephens, and benefiting his effort to pay for his fight with cancer!

At DriveThruRPG
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/483217/still-not-done-with-pf1-bund le


9 people marked this as a favorite.

REALLY solid story, James. I enjoyed it very much.


7 people marked this as a favorite.
Ravingdork wrote:
I never realized they were so close.

People on an adventure together often become familiar very quickly.


10 people marked this as a favorite.
Tridus wrote:
Not wanting to wait for someone to refocus sounds very much like some game sessions I've been in. Fantastic work.

Yeah, that's one of the things I could NOT have come up with in this flash fiction without having actually played PF2. :)


10 people marked this as a favorite.
Evan Tarlton wrote:
This is fantastic! I love all of the little details, like Seelah having 11 cloths for performing rites. Thank you so much, Owen and Cristoph!

I'm glad folks enjoyed it!


16 people marked this as a favorite.

Gary was always kind to me.
I am greatly saddened by his passing.


12 people marked this as a favorite.

Looks like nothing in this book contradicts the very earliest ideas we had about the GAP when first creating the setting.
Nice job, Starfinder team!


19 people marked this as a favorite.

I continue to be extremely excited to see the first hints of what y'all have done with this!


4 people marked this as a favorite.

Too help my cover growing cancer bills, a number of publishers have donated products to two bundles, each with more than $700 worth of products for $35.

Bundle #1

The PF2 pdfs in this bundle include Ancestries Unleashed: Rabbitfolk (by Luis Loza!), Files For Everybody (on Alchemical Tattoos, Called Shots, Conjuration Spells, Divination Spells, Evocation Spells, Martial Actions, Mephians, Nashi, Polymorph Spells, Rituals, Scoundrel Options, Trickster Sells, Uncommon Disease, Yroometjis, and the Zoomer), Rogue Genius Ancestries: Loamlings (by Michael Sayre!)

There's also a ton of other content (over $700 worth), including 3 official Paizo Pathfinder Tales (Hell's Pawns, Plague of Light, and The Compass Stone), and a slew of digital maps.

Bundle #2
The PDf2 pdfs in the second bundle include the all-in-one volume, 1st-20th level AP The Skaldwood Blight (by Ron Lundeen!), Files For Everybody (on Arcana feats, Athletics Feats, Downtime Options, Fighter Options, Medicine Options, Pugilist Options, and Stealth Feats), and Recall Knowledge (one on Dragons and one on Fiends).

And I offer my sincere gratitude to every person and company nvolved in creating these.

Additional material includes slew of Starfinder content, Pathfinder 1e content (including Kobold Press's Southlands setting and the Pf conversion for Shotguns &Sorcery), and anumber of papercraft miniatures.


9 people marked this as a favorite.

I am SUPER-excited to see what the fine folks of the Virtual Star Chamber have come up with for this book.


47 people marked this as a favorite.

I was there, in RPG R&D, at WotC in 200.
I was there, on the phone with Erik, in 2008.
I'm here, now.


5 people marked this as a favorite.

I look forward to seeing what y'all do with Starfinder next!


11 people marked this as a favorite.

In April 2014, on my very first day on-staff at Paizo, you came down to say hi, and make sure I was settling in well.
That meant a lot to me.
I hope you settle in to your retirement well, and find it fulfilling and worth the wait.
Take care, Lisa.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Amazing story, Avi!


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Hi, I'm Owen K.C. Stephens, co-creator of Starfinder and the original Starfinder Design Lead for Paizo.

I have a number of Infinite Masters products for Starfinder currently available in Paizo's Starfinder Infinite community content program. The content in all of these was either developed or written by me.

Galactic Magic: The Feats Chapter
Pages: 13 Price: $4.95
Authors: Owen K.C. Stephens, Dustin Knight, Sasha Laranoa Harving
Developer: OKCS
WELCOME TO THE FEATS CHAPTER OF GALACTIC MAGIC!

Well, okay, not really.

But as the original Design Lead for Starfinder, this is the chapter of feats I *would* have put into Galactic Magic if I'd been tasked with creating such a thing. Along with two amazing freelance writers, I've created a slew of feats to expand options for spellcasters of any class, as some extra love for the new classes that have only recently entered the game.

So if you want spellcasters in your games to have more feats that feel designed just for them, this is the chapter you need to add next to your copy of Galactic Magic!

DANGER DOSSIER
Pages: 70 Price: $14.95
Author: Andrew White
Developer: OKCS
IT'S A DANGEROUS GALAXY OUT THERE!

Alghollthu. Black puddings. Primal dragons. Intellect devourers. Raveners. Shoggoth. They may have all been threats on the world of Golarion, but that doesn't mean you won't encounter them on hundreds of other worlds. And even with a laser rifle handy, these creatures put you in real danger.

Danger Dossier updates 32 classic Pathfinder monsters to Starfinder, with more than 50 stat blocks, templates to create more creatures, and full-color illustrations of everything from alghollthu interlocutors to zomoks.


4 people marked this as a favorite.

Since we were both trying to simplify the game, and had decided to give people armor that can give you days of life support, we decided to eliminate any penalty for sleeping or resting in armor.


5 people marked this as a favorite.

Patrick was a HUGE help in showing me the ropes of the "Paizo Way of Doing Things" when I first came to work at the office in 2014.
He's also a great creative, and a steady developer.


5 people marked this as a favorite.

Thank you for this.


6 people marked this as a favorite.

Oh, I had no idea this was coming, and I am super-excited for it!


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Vydale Mystraline wrote:
The Pyramid of the Dog, now that's some old memories...

Sometimes, it's nice to sneak a deep cut in while writing something new. :)


22 people marked this as a favorite.

Congratulations, to Paizo, the Paizo Union, and the fans, freelancers, and community who helped make this happen.


17 people marked this as a favorite.
Isis Woz wrote:
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:

The cynical mind now wonders if 'Infinite' was designed to do a content 'shortcut' on the cheap to compensate for freelance slowdown/stoppage.

I don't like thinking that way.

Paizo executives, please prove me wrong, recognize UPW.

Hey, just wanted to chime in and say "Infinite" was in the works well before the announcement at GenCon. It takes months to plan out something on that level and it was not founded in reliation to our (freelancers) actions.

Unsurprisingly, Isis is 100% correct.


10 people marked this as a favorite.

For those of you not aware, independent creators can now make products using Pathfinder's IP, using the Paizo Infinite programs!

There's some GREAT stuff available already.

I am particular excited about the fiction! Pathfinder fiction, again!

Vellum & Lace Ep 00 Moving Day is available at a promo for just 50 cents!

And check out the October-appropriate Something to Dismember Me By: A Harrowing Hayride, 11-pages of autumnal fun and mini-games!


34 people marked this as a favorite.

I support United Paizo Workers.

I know a lot of the names who signed. Some are my friends. Others are just among the smartest, most centered, most well-informed people I know.

I trust them to be correct about what they need to do good work.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Eshenesra wrote:

However, how will the actual formatting and presentation of the submissions work? Will there be an interface on Pathfidner infinite or will will have to invest in a variety of PDF editing software to submit our entries? I am worried this will be a roadblock for me and other people.

I have read the FAQ's but I am just not following it's advice very well.

Noting that I am a freelancer and third-party publisher, not someone running this program:

You still need to make a finished pdf product yourself before putting it up for sale. There will be some templates and guidelines to help but, yes, ultimately you need to either figure out some editing/layout software and skills, or work with someone who can do that for you.

Since the system is capable of diving income among multiple creators, one option would be to form a collaboration with a graphic artist or publisher, and do the writing and editing, but have a partner do layout, and split the income in some agreed-upon fashion.


18 people marked this as a favorite.
Yoshua wrote:
It is a good post. Really good post. But has nothing to do with Sara Marie or Diego. Which by the time I got to the end of the near 30 tweets left me a bit sad as that is what the current hot topic should be.

I have amplified what Sara Marie and Diego have had to say as I could, which isn't much tbh.

I am firmly in their corner, but lack any specific knowledge that would allow me to make a call for specific action.

If either of them wants any help or amplification from me at all, I have told both they have my unwavering support.


15 people marked this as a favorite.
Umbral Reaver wrote:
Anorak wrote:
Cross posting, everyone should take a moment today to read Owen's thoughts about Paizo Twitter Thread
For those of us that can't view birdsite, what's the contents of this?

For such folks, I also have the whole thing here.

I consider Lissa Guillet's statement far more important than mine, but to the best of my knowledge it is only available on Facebook, here.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
NielsenE wrote:
(I was just on your website and Patreon trying to find a barely remembered page/article about reaching out to you for various rpg consulting questions/services and couldn't find it; do you have a link?)

It's the $200/month "unicorn" tier of my Patreon. That gets 1 hr/month.

I also sell consulting ad hoc for people who don't need ongoing services.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
NielsenE wrote:
One of the biggest drains on my creativity is having to come up with an interesting pantheon, when I'd rather just use Golarions. (Since I know if I write my own to support the story, most GMs would just swap it out for Golarion, or Faerun's, or their home brew anyways). Somewhat of a similar issue with all of PF2's ancestries -- the look and feel of elves coupled with their backstory is all protected/IP content. Other ancestries are similarly complicated to tease apart what can be safely used.

I mean, the universe of Golarion includes Earth.

Put it on another world, in the same universe, with the same gods and cosmology.


18 people marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:
it would disappoint me to know that someone else is essentially using an adventure I wrote to make money off of that hard work. But it might play out that there's not much to be done about that, I guess.

My current answer (because I AM working on something like this) is to get the original author of the adventure to make the new edition update guide.

That means PF2 fans can play the PF1 adventure (though they'll have to have a copy of the PF1 version -- I'm having an update guide created, NOT copying and pasting any text or maps and such, but Paizo has PDFs of all those for sale), and the original author can oversee his intent and expand as desired with side quests, rules for 6 players, and so on.


7 people marked this as a favorite.
Mark Moreland wrote:
Dustin Knight wrote:
Is there room in the program for multi-creator collaborative works? Would they just have to be posted under one creator's account, a shared account, or tagged on two different accounts?
All products need to be posted by a single publisher, but depending on how the account is set up, you can share your portion of the revenue however you want (royalties for authors/artists, split evenly between partners, donated to charity, etc.) OBS has a really robust set of tools for publishers, whether the content is being sold on DriveThruRPG or one of the partner programs like Pathfinder Infinite.

And one of the big advantages of this, if you do an income split, is that you never see the money you don't get. When I pay profit share on RGG sales, the money coms in to RGG, I have to do the math and pass it out, and then tell the IRS I made the money but spent it on business expenses (and to who and how much if it is enough money).

Doing things this way, if on a $4 product I get $1 and a collaborator gets $1, it happens automatically (once I set it up that way), and it's never officially my income.


17 people marked this as a favorite.
Filthy Lucre wrote:
I'm genuinely shocked to see how many people care about the pathfinder setting. I only care about the rules and use none of their IP and I assumed that was normal, but I guess people actually think golarion is good?

There are at least three camps, none of which are small.

Gimme the rules, I don't care about the setting.

Gimme the setting, I don't care about the rules.

Gimme both, I need them together.

Obviously, Paizo has a significant advantage in marketing to all three at once. And since no one can do the setting without Paizo, and Paizo already gives away the rules without setting for free, pretty clearly they don't see people trying to steal those markets as serious issues.

Of course, there are sub-groups, like "Gimme these rules AND a complete setting, made by these people, with this tone, I don't care if it's Golarion." That group MIGHT be one someone could steal... but it would be difficult and time consuming.

I sat in a lot of meetings about these questions for Starfinder and PF2 within the company. Everyone involved is expertly aware of the potential risks, and what it would take for any person or group to try to capitalize on them in a way that would damage Paizo's sales.


36 people marked this as a favorite.

"I wonder how much Paizo realizes how easy it is just to make a pathfinder 2.5 without paizo thanks to the OGL"

They know *exactly* how easy it is... and how hard, as well.


Smartly and tightly written.


4 people marked this as a favorite.

Nice Lu.
I enjoyed it a lot.


Obviously if anyone has any questions or concerns, I am here to answer them!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Heya folks!

Everything at the Rogue Genius Games store on Paizo.com is 25% off, now through Feb 28th.

And then after that, we're shutting that store down.

RGG will continue to exist and offer our products at other venues where you currently find them, but we'll be closing the Paizo.com store at the end of the month.

So if you want to get anything you'd access through this site, this is your Last Chance.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank the Paizo staff for their help with the store over the years. They've been tremendous and professional, and I appreciate all they've done.

I remain a big fan of the company, and it's games, and plan to keep playing all of them for years to come!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Publisher, Rogue Genius Games


Obviously if anyone has any questions or concerns, I'm here to answer them.


Heya folks!

Everything at the Rogue Genius Games store on Paizo.com is 25% off, now through Feb 28th.

And then after that, we're shutting that store down.

RGG will continue to exist and offer our products at other venues where you currently find them, but we'll be closing the Paizo.com store at the end of the month.

So if you want to get anything you'd access through this site, this is your Last Chance.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank the Paizo staff for their help with the store over the years. They've been tremendous and professional, and I appreciate all they've done.

I remain a big fan of the company, and it's games, and plan to keep playing all of them for years to come!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Publisher, Rogue Genius Games


Heya folks!

Everything at the Rogue Genius Games store on Paizo.com is 25% off, now through Feb 28th.

And then after that, we're shutting that store down.

RGG will continue to exist and offer our products at other venues where you currently find them, but we'll be closing the Paizo.com store at the end of the month.

So if you want to get anything you'd access through this site, this is your Last Chance.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank the Paizo staff for their help with the store over the years. They've been tremendous and professional, and I appreciate all they've done.

I remain a big fan of the company, and it's games, and plan to keep playing all of them for years to come!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Publisher, Rogue Genius Games


Obviously if anyone has questions or concerns, I'm here to address them. :)


7 people marked this as a favorite.

Congratulations to both Michael and James, who I have always been very impressed with!


4 people marked this as a favorite.

You all do AMAZING work, and I look forward to seeing what you produce next!


Belltrap wrote:

Hi again Mr. Stephens. Been following your RWW campaign notes on your blog with interest.

Question: If I want to know more about the Xa-Oroso/Blood Space setting for Starfinder, what would you say is the best place to begin? What would you say are the key books that give a good overall picture of the campaign setting?

Sorry this sat for so long! I moved three time in 12 months, and getting unpacked has taken a ton more time than I expected.

We have one adventure and three gazetteers on Blood Space so far -- Ulo, Tor, and the Solar Court.

And they are all part of the current Bundle of Holding, along with some other great Starfinder products my numerous companies!

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/StarfinderEmpires


5 people marked this as a favorite.

As the person who created House Zeizerer, I LOVE this!
Great writing job!


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:
Owen, this was simply lovely!

I really appreciate that. :)


7 people marked this as a favorite.
Evan Tarlton wrote:
Oh, this is magnificent. The choice of second-person for the narration... *chef's kiss*

Thanks!

This is my most experimental fiction to date, so I am delighted people seem to be digging it.

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